The Balanced and Whole Wellness Center, LLC provides a home practice space for the Joyful Refuge Sangha, a local Buddhist community in the tradition of Zen Master, peace activist, and writer Thich Nhat Hanh.
Every Monday evening, ten to fifteen people gather here to meditate, listen to Buddhist teachings, and share insights from our practice of meditation and mindfulness. Our practice is based on insights about mindfulness and cultivating awareness, understanding, compassion, joy, peace, and well-being in ourselves and the world around us.
Mindfulness is the energy of being aware and awake to the present moment. It is the continuous practice of touching life deeply in every moment of daily life. To be mindful is to be truly alive, present and at one with those around you and with what you are doing. We bring our body and mind into harmony while we sit, walk, eat, wash the dishes, drive the care or take our morning shower, work, etc.
Our meditation practice helps develop our capacity and intention to be mindful. In practicing together as a Sangha, as a community, our practice of mindfulness becomes more joyful, relaxed and steady. We are bells of mindfulness for each other, supporting and reminding each other along the path of practice. With the support of the community, we can practice to cultivate peace and joy within and around us, as a gift for all of those whom we love and care for. We can cultivate our solidity and freedom – solid in our deepest aspiration and free from our fears, misunderstandings and our suffering. (-adapted for Joyful Refuge from ‘Practices’ at www.plumvillage.org).
The Joyful Refuge Sangha is led by a group of rotating facilitators who are experienced lay practitioners in this tradition. Once a month, usually the first Monday of the month, we practice the ‘Five Mindfulness Trainings,’ an interpretation of the Buddhist precepts for developing happiness and an ethical life.
Joyful Refuge meets from 7:15 to 9:00pm every Monday evening. No experience with meditation or Buddhism is required to attend (in each session where newcomers are present some basic meditation instruction is given), and people come as often or as rarely as fits them. The community is open to people of all spiritual/religious faiths and traditions. There is no fee, but everyone is invited to practice generosity in support of the community by making a small freewill offering.
For more information, contact Susal Stebbins at 503.381.3580.
